No such thing as coincidence?!

Coincidence - a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection.

Is it random or is it the hand of God? Am I making too much of it? Don't know yet...
My most thought-provoking brush with coincidence happened years ago.. when I still had an impressionable mind... seeing, hearing, & trying to believe... Somewhere near my teens. It was a rainy afternoon & I was at my mom's place. My aunt, who happens to be a nun, was with us that day. She is the really pious kind. I mean, one of those genuinely religious people I know. She believes in sacrifice & one of her ways with sacrifice was to give up any kind of joy. Even the joy she got from meeting her parents. So she had decided to leave that day after a short visit & it was raining heavily. The place we were in is the kind that gets marooned after heavy rains .. and marooned we were on that day with no way for her to get back to her convent. For one moment, she surveyed her surroundings, had a slightly worried look.. & then said, "God show me a way". Within 2 minutes, a boat came our way (in the canal in front of the house). The oarsman really had no plan of coming that way he said but he just ended up coming there!! All of us were in shock but not Sister Aunty. She said, "I knew God would show me a way" - convinced why the boat & oarsman were there at that moment!
Another example, was my great grandfather lying on his death bed for a few days & specifically asking my grandfather 'what date is it tomorrow?'- which was the date on which he died... as if he knew.. Was it a mere coincidence or was he aware of greater things..??
These are people of extreme faith I'm talking about... but let me talk about ordinary, insignificant me! I'm not that religious... not that deep into my faith... its more of a convenience & a habit that drives me to faith very often ... barring few inexplicable moments. This particular point in time of my life that still has an impact on me was when my wedding was fixed... I was so naïve.. I was lost! I had no idea what I wanted. I did not know if i wanted to get married & I had no idea whether the man I met was the one - was I convinced or was I not? I was just not sure. Instead of inky-pinky, I just opened the bible. Its our faith that the right verse always catches our eye. What I read there in the bible that day changed my life. What I read was this: "His name is John"... yes the verse where Zachariah's faith is restored & he reveals the name of his son that the Lord had revealed to him. Mere coincidence that this man I had met to be married off to was christened 'John'? Hard to believe! But that is the moment that made me stop doubting & take up life with my husband. Whether he is the right one for me or not,  my belief is that he is apparently the one destined for me - for whatever reason!!
Coincidence or not, I will never know for sure, but there is divine intervention. I'd like to believe it. I may not be strong in my faith but I know that we are guided every step of the way. Good or bad - as it may seem, we cannot fully comprehend what's happening. We're in a place where we know of microbes & of our gigantic earth which itself is just a microbe or lesser in the universe.


One of my favorite stories summarizes it I guess:


"This legend was well-known in the Middle Ages, but has no grounding in anything that St. Augustine himself wrote or preached.

The scene is the seashore, where there is a small hole dug in the sand by a little boy with a seashell. St. Augustine , clad in his episcopal robes, was walking, pondering with  difficulty the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. “Father, Son, Holy  Spirit; three in one!” he muttered, shaking his head.
As  he approached the little boy who was running back and forth between the  sea and the tiny hole with a seashell of water, Augustine craned his neck  and asked him: “Son, what are you doing?”
“Can’t you see?” said the boy. “I’m emptying the sea into this hole!”
“Son,  you can’t do that!” Augustine countered.
“I will sooner empty the sea  into this hole than you will manage to get the mystery of the Most Holy  Trinity into your head!”
Upon  saying that, the boy, who was an angel - according to legend, quickly  disappeared, leaving Augustine alone with the mystery of the Most Holy  Trinity."

We are mere mortals. Most of reality is beyond comprehension. I believe... in divinity, in a world beyond comprehension and in a divine reason for every happening of my life - be it apparent or not!